Top Phoenix Organics’ promotional image for its latest venture to tackle river pollution. Above The sites for the Love Project’s tree-planting between June and September. Below left A #loveyourwater promotional card, with wildflower seeds embedded within.

On June 5, Phoenix Organics started planting native plants along polluted rivers for the Love Project, a venture which started last year with the company helping to remove 5,000 â„“ of rubbish from New Zealand beaches.
When figures were released by regional councils last month revealing that more than half of New Zealand rivers were unsafe to swim in and that Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Canterbury and Northland were the worst, Phoenix knew it had to help.
Co-founder of Sustainable Coastlines, Sam Judd, said, ‘Working with Phoenix Organics, we’re helping communities to stop pollution at its source by setting up riparian planting eventsâ€”these help reduce pollutants entering rivers by reestablishing native vegetation.’
Phoenix is hoping that through the Love Project, its customers will feel inspired to make a real difference in New Zealand’s coastal areas.
â€˜We’ve been committed to sustainability since day one and believe New Zealand should continue to build on its clean, green image through involving communities in projects like this,’ said Steve Cook, marketing manager for Phoenix Organics.
The Love Project is also partnering with environmental artist Martin Hill, based in Wanaka, to create a sculpture during the project, with more information about being released late July.
Auckland saw the first planting day on June 5 at Wakaaranga Creek; Wellington follows on June 26 at Owhiro Stream. Christchurch’s day is on July 31 at Travis Wetland, while Nelson’s is on August 21 at Corder Park. Northland and Waikato are in September.
To find out more, you can look at Phoenix Organics’ Facebook and Instagram as well as the hashtag #loveyourwater.â€”Fenella Clarke

There’s always been an interest in the energy of crystals, and Karma Feeling’s bracelets use natural crystals, each embodying what the company believes to be healing energies. At the very least, you can choose something to fit your own emotionsâ€”Karma Feeling’s website guides you through it. Its owner, Gaynor Osborne-Lawn, explains: ‘The gemstones are used to create a unique look and to create energies that benefit the wearer. The healing properties of our crystals have been tried and tested and we encourage our customers to give themselves and others the powerful gift of Karma Feeling. Itâ€™s not only about how stylish our bracelets look but how incredible they make you feel.’ They are available at karmafeeling.co.uk with prices beginning at Â£35; the Dreaming of Ibiza bracelet, available at this price, is pictured.Rose & Willard has shown a new collection using fish skin from a sustainable producer in Iceland. The designs are machine-washable and environmentally friendly, and has anti-tear and anti-scratch properties, according to the company. Rose & Willard has attacted the likes of Michelle Dockery and Charlotte Riley, as well as two Bond girls, Naomie Harris and Gemma Arterton.
Finally, online guide The Fifty Best has awarded New Zealand’s Black Robin Rare Gin (left) a Double Gold medal in its Best Gin Awards for 2015. After blind-tasting 57 gins from around the world, Black Robin gained a Double Gold, which meant it received top points across the board. Black Robin notes that it was inspired by the endangered black robin, and a percentage of profits goes to the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand. It is described as a spicy, citrus gin, with a soft floral note and a dry finish.

The Marlborough Falcon Trust Falcon Valley has opened at the Brancott Estate Heritage Centre this week, a memorable destination for travellers in New Zealand this summer. The result of a partnership between the Trust and Brancott Estate, visitors can check get up close with a kārearea (New Zealand falcon) for a donation. The donations will go toward falcon awareness and rehabilitation at the Trust’s aviary in Marlborough.
The Trust has two advocacy birds in flight that visitors can see as part of the Brancott Estate Falcon Encounter. The birds help keep grape-eating birds away from the vineyard, and can reach 200 km/h when hunting.
There are fewer than 3,000 pairs if kārearea in the wild, and they face a number of threats, including loss of habitat, electrocution on power poles, collisions with turbines on wind farms, predation by cats and hedgehogs, and stoats and rats preying on eggs and nestlings. They are listed as a threatened species by the Department of Conservation.
The Falcon Encounter also includes a tasting of wines from the Brancott Estate Living Land range of organic wines. The range has raised a good deal of the NZ$500,000 that the winery has given to the Trust, where NZ$1 from each bottle is donated to the Living Land Fund. The funds have helped finance a 16-pen rehabilitation and breeding aviary, and the ongoing care of falcons.

Alive Skin & Hair has launched, stocking over 3,000 hair care, make-up, beauty and skin care products, targeting Australian and New Zealand customers. The website stocks brands including Alpha H, ASAP Skincare, Dermalogica, Elemis, Jane Iredale, Joico, Matrix, Moroccanoil, Skinceuticals, St Tropez, Thalgo, and Youngblood, supplied straight from the manufacturer, and sold ay 15 to 35 per cent off the recommended retail price. Alive Skin & Hair can ship the same day for orders placed before 12 p.m. AEST, and shoppers earn points with each purchase. There are experts to help with online and telephone enquiries. Alive Skin & Hair also gives shoppers the chance to choose two new samples to try, for free, with each order. New Zealand natural skin care brand Living Nature has gained a bigger footprint in the Japanese market with a concept store on the second floor of the Grand Tree Musashikosugi Shopping Centre near Shibuya, Tokyo. Operated by @Star Japan, the Living Nature distributor there, the new store reaches thousands of Japanese shoppers, located a few minutes from the busy Musashiâ€“Kosugi train station, which sees 390,000 commuters per day. @Star Japan, meanwhile, has operated since 2000, and has had a long-standing relationship with Living Nature.
In a release, @Star sales and promotion manager Ai Takahara said, ‘This development of the concept store provides a way to engage with consumers and enable our highly trained staff to share their experience of the Living Nature range, which offers truly natural products for face and body.’
In Cornwall, England, Spiezia Organics has rebranded, and is about to launch three new hair and body products, containing 95â€“8 per cent certified organic ingredients and botanicals. Its Organic Gloss shampoo features ingredients including lemon peel extract, zizyphus joazerio bark extract and dandrilys; its Organic Shine conditioner helps stimulate hair growth with ginger oil and lemon peel extract, and contains royal jelly to strengthen the follicles and prevent hair loss; and its organic hand and body cleanser has aloe vera gel, radish oil and lemongrass oil. Spiezia Organics’ commitment to the environment extends to its 100 per cent sustainable packaging, while it is the first UK company to have Soil Association accreditation across its whole skin care range.

The Peninsula Beverly Hills is known for its sophistication, adding a European flair in a Californian setting. It was a perfect location for Organic Spa Magazine to host the launch of their 2014 Los Angeles Experience Wellness Media and Eco-Celebrity Event. Celebrities included John Salley, Katie Chonacas, Jennifer Taylor and their stunning October cover girl Nancy Oâ€™Dell. With natural holistic services offered in cabanas by the poolside on the rooftop, overlooking marvellous views, the event was based around the beauty and delicacy of naturally infused products.
Eileen Fischer’s stylish, restrained fashion appeared alongside Nubian Heritage, founded by Richelieu Dennis and Nyema Tubman, who presented a slew of high-end natural skin care products. Others tapping in to their organic creativity included Ikove, Ayushi, Jurlique, the Organic Face, Susie Frazer, Two Bunch Palms, Organics Brasil, Plantlife, Shankara, Aura Cacia, Tsuiya, GaÃ«lle Organic, Malebranche, Nordic Naturals, Green Spa Network, Vana Retreats, Immunocologie, Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, Natracare, Kari Gran, Riviera Maya, Dahliana Skincare, Fifth Dimension Clothing, Golden Door and Shea Moisture. The brands had one special factor in common: they brought the mind, body and soul together in the midst of natural products.

Travelling cross-country, we arrive in New York where Alyson Dutch hosted her Valentineâ€™s Day Gift Guide Event. The Artisan Group was in attendance to present everything from jewellery pieces to skin care products. Brainy Pac presented their conveniently designed hats, where separate compartments permit the wearer to store away important items, including their gadgets, while staying chic. Signature Soul Socks introduced their comfortable socks, with solid soles that can easily slide into a boot. Lulu DKâ€™s jewellery-like metallic temporary tattoos, in gold or silver, illuminate. Grande Lash-MD is perfect for the woman interested in elongating her eyelashes, with a product made out of exclusively natural ingredients. Dollipop Cosmetics featured their radiant eye shadows consisting of a range of various shades from lusterless matte to shimmering gloss.
In Paris, Deux Aâ€™s head designer and founder, Anna-Liza, presented her spring 2015 collection during an intimate gathering in Paris. The collection entitled Naga Botanicus added her personal take on floral creativity, with vibrant, vivid shades and slightly psychedelic features. Casual, basic knee-high skirts to hip-hugging dresses are accompanied by large floral headdresses.â€”Lola Cristall, Paris Editor

A gala presentation ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on the night of May 21 named Berlin-based photographer Michael Schmidt as the winner of the eighth annual Prix Pictet. The award endeavours to promote the message of sustainability to a global audience via the medium of photography. This yearâ€™s theme, Consumption, had a record number of applicants and was decided from a shortlist of eleven finalists. Schmidtâ€™s assemblage of 60 photographs arrayed in a huge grid (finalists are given 21 mÂ² of exhibition space), entitled Lebensmittel, engaged the tensions of food production and transport with a range of provocative images.
The SFr100,000 award (US$112,000) was presented by Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the UN, and Honorary President of the Prix Pictet. Pictet Group, founded in 1805, is based in GenÃ¨ve. The award for Mr Schmidt, unable to attend due to illness, was accepted by Tate Modern director Chris Dercon.
The finalists remain on exhibit at the V&A through June 14.â€”Stanley Moss, Travel Editor

You donâ€™t necessarily expect Burtâ€™s Bees to be at the forefront of whatâ€™s in fashion, but this season, you may be proven wrong.
This company, with its roots in Maine, best known for its beeswax lip balm, is bringing the same nature-first, socially responsible philosophy to lip colour, with its range of lip shimmer, gloss and shine. Thereâ€™s even a tinted lip balm, which gives lips a hint of colour as well as 100 per cent natural moisturization.
But what colour should one opt for? Burtâ€™s Bees is letting its customers find out, by consulting a questionnaire by celebrity make-up artist Katey Denno. Denno has four simple questions on the Burtâ€™s Bees website, and this will allow you to choose the ideal shade.
The questions donâ€™t even take that long to go through: the first three are on a single page, while the last asks whether you are up for an adventure or have a go-to shade.
The best thing is that everything is responsibly made, with Burtâ€™s Bees maintaining a small operational footprint, using sustainable packaging, and having a strict supplier code where human rights are at the forefront. Each year it still engages in community outreach, having planted urban gardens and built hive boxes for the recovering bee population.
It has also established its own charity, the Greater Good Foundation, where it empowers inspiring grass-roots initiatives and supports sustainable agriculture. Its ethos still centres around a phrase in one of its first catalogues 20 years ago: â€˜What’s right isn’t always popular. What’s popular isn’t always right.â€™
You can find Katey Dennoâ€™s shade finder here.

Taylor Swift poses in the press room during the 2015 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 17, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photographed by Jason Merritt.

Dita von Teese visits the Avakian suite during the 68th Cannes Film Festival at the Carlton Hotel on May 23, 2015 in Cannes, France.

Tilda Swinton at Chanel cruise 2015â€“16 in Seoul, photographed by Aldo Castoldi. Full story at http://lucire.com/insider/20150505/chanel-shows-cruise-2015-16-in-seoul-with-gisele-bundchen-kristen-stewart-razane-jammal-shin-hye-park-alma-jodorowsky/

Gillian Anderson on the red carpet at the Olivier Awards, April 2015. Photograph courtesy the Olivier Awards.

Taeyang at Chanel cruise 2015â€“16 in Seoul, photographed by Aldo Castoldi. Full story at http://lucire.com/insider/20150505/chanel-shows-cruise-2015-16-in-seoul-with-gisele-bundchen-kristen-stewart-razane-jammal-shin-hye-park-alma-jodorowsky/

Izabel Goulart in Georges Hobeika, at the premiÃ¨re of Ice and the Sky, on May 24, 2015. Jewellery by de Grisogono.

Alma Jodorowsky at Chanel cruise 2015â€“16 in Seoul, photographed by Aldo Castoldi. Full story at http://lucire.com/insider/20150505/chanel-shows-cruise-2015-16-in-seoul-with-gisele-bundchen-kristen-stewart-razane-jammal-shin-hye-park-alma-jodorowsky/